A week after a group touting East Cobb cityhood released a rosy financial feasibility study, the report was revised with a projection of additional annual revenue.
The report, prepared by Georgia State University researchers and made public Dec. 11, initially included no revenue from the state title ad valorem tax (TATV), explaining that the proposed city of East Cobb has no car dealerships.
But the revised report, which was dated Dec. 18 and made public today, acknowledges that the TAVT calculation is based on where motor vehicles are registered.
The revenue based on vehicles in the proposed city of East Cobb, according to the revised report, would come to nearly $1.4 million a year.
Here’s a link to the revised study, which explains the calculation in detail on Page 8. The estimated revenue table on Page 22 and shown in the chart above includes that line item, which was absent from the initial study (PDF here).
The estimated annual revenue for the City of East Cobb would rise from $48.4 million to $49.8 million. The estimated annual expenses are unchanged, at around $46 million a year.
The expenses would include police, fire and emergency services, planning and zoning and for general administration.
The updated report still concludes that East Cobb cityhood is financially feasible. The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, Inc. paid $36,000 to commission the report by GSU’s Center for State and Local Finance.
It’s one of two entities, along with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, that conducts required feasibility reports for those seeking cityhood.
The two-year process includes state legislation that would call for a referendum to be voted on by residents of a proposed municipality. New cities must provide a minimum of three services.
The revision of the 22-page East Cobb cityhood study noted the addition of the ad valorem revenue and said “no other material changes were made.”
In an e-mail response to a request by East Cobb News, Phil Kent, the public relations consultant for the cityhood group, said the revised study also “answered critics with additional references to the base year 2017 for its property tax analysis.”
We’ve followed up for a further explanation and will update when we get it.
The proposed city of East Cobb includes unincorporated areas of Cobb Commission District 2 that are east of I-75 and outside the Cumberland Community Improvement District.
The population of that area comes to around 96,000.
The initial GSU study was circulated to a select group of community influencers in East Cobb right before Christmas, and some of them had concerns about the numbers and methodology.
One of those citizens, Joe O’Connor, resigned in protest, accusing the cityhood group of a lack of transparency.
Little is known about who is behind the cityhood drive other than its president, Atlanta Country Club resident Joe Gavalis, and G. Owen Brown, founder of the East Cobb-based Retail Planning Corp.
Thea Powell, a former Cobb commissioner who also is part of the ad hoc citizens advisory board, said she found information about East Cobb businesses outdated, going back to 2012, during the aftermath of the recession.
The East Cobb cityhood group has not indicated what its next steps may be or when the public may be informed of its plans.
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Excellent and all spot on as overlooked expenses…
Yes the real purpose of the shenanigans put forth by the initial inception and planing groups real desire are suspect…
Follow the money – yours and theirs – I guarantee the plan shows a minus and plus sound – different you and them
Why are we even considering making East Cobb a city? What is the purpose?
The additional 1.4 million is great but it still does not explain how the city will fund all of the proposed issues that they are going to make “better than” the county services. How are they going to improve the roads? Contract the work to the county DOT that already does the work? Contract with a private company to do the work? Same with the issue of adding sidewalks, contract to the county or hire outside firms to do the work? The landscaping of the medians I would assume would go to the lowest bid landscaping company, so how does that improve the issues we already are incurring? The $3million surplus would get eaten up very quickly if they want to purchase any land, and build any sort of City Hall and City Green. The complex in Sandy Springs cost $221.7 million and it took more than 10 years for the project to get started. The other two services that the City of East Cobb wants to make better are the Police and Fire. Currently East Cobb is covered by its own precinct and enhanced by the Sheriffs department and 4 other police precincts. We also have specialty teams of Bomb Squad and SWAT. The estimation from the study comes in way low for a budget. Sandy Springs Police budget for FY 2019 is $22.8 million, and they are an established department. City of East Cobb would have to incur a similar budget, plus purchase police cars, uniforms, bullet proof vests guns and all of the radios, and other equipment needed to operate. There is no mention of vehicle maintenance contract for the cars, reserve vehicles, fuel, and capital expenses for maintaining a police station. For the fire department City of east Cobb would be giving up a Class 1 fire department with 30 stations and specialty teams like HazMat and Rescue. The study does mention that the city can purchase the existing fire stations for $5000 each But that is just the building with nothing in it. The city would have to buy at least 5 fire engines at $750,000 each at least one ladder truck at $1 million (2 to keep up the service the county provides) and two rescue trucks at $80,000 each. Plus Hose, and all the equipment to fill the trucks. There would need to be atleast one reserve peice of equipment and there would need to be a vehicle maintenance budget. Sandy Springs budget for the fire department for FY 2019 is $15.1 million and they already have all of this. Plus the City would have to pay into, or build a dispatch center. Sandy Springs also contracts out their Ambulance transport for and additional $1.5 million. Why would we want to invest into all of this when it all already exists? That is my question.